[Rant] Dark Souls: A Shitty console port

Having just finished off Dishonored, I decided to take a look at Dark Souls: Prepare to Die, that I had sitting in my gaming queue since whenever i picked it up on sale.

Man, this thing is a piece of shit. First off, it requires GfWL or you can't save progress. At all.

Secondly, it's as bad as you think--no effort was made to adjust anything for PC. Menus have you scroll left and right, and no drop-down menus are to be found. It took 2 minutes just to scroll through all the resolutions.

Ther was also no effort in changing the key prompts. "Press A!" "Press B!" No idea, and no effort went into the PC version of this game.

And the graphics look like shit for a game released last August. Easily something out of 2007-2008.

Having just finished off Dishonored, I decided to take a look at Dark Souls: Prepare to Die, that I had sitting in my gaming queue since whenever i picked it up on sale.

Man, this thing is a piece of shit. First off, it requires GfWL or you can't save progress. At all.

Secondly, it's as bad as you think--no effort was made to adjust anything for PC. Menus have you scroll left and right, and no drop-down menus are to be found. It took 2 minutes just to scroll through all the resolutions.

Ther was also no effort in changing the key prompts. "Press A!" "Press B!" No idea, and no effort went into the PC version of this game.

And the graphics look like shit for a game released last August. Easily something out of 2007-2008.

0 of 10, IMO.

Welp, From Software said from the start that they have zero experience writing games for PC. They ported it to the PC because of the humongous amount of people that asked for Dark Souls to be ported on their forums. So, for having zero experience, they did a decent job, for most reviewers' opinions (I have the 360 version of the game).

As for the graphics, it is using the same engine as Demon's Souls, which came out in 2007. Graphics tweaks are also part of having PC experience. If I recall correctly, several users from their forums have been trying to help them with graphical tweaks.

You are missing out on a very good game, KrisN. It is hard, but not impossible or cheap (except for about 2 spots in the game). Dark Souls will kill you... repeatedly, but every time you learn and get just that little bit better until you are able to best what is defeating you. Sif (a giant wolf that wields a sword in its mouth) kicked the crap out of me about 10 times, until I got the telltale movements down correctly and then BAM! Dead Sif and huge satisfaction from overcoming a difficult challenge.--From Psychonauts -Lungfish Civilian: (describing Goggalor) He's impervious to bullets! ... and love!--

Get the ds fix mod, its supposed to unlock the frame rate and let you get higher resolutions and fix a lot of what the devs did oh so wrong.

that said it is deplorable they did so bad with this port. Yeah yeah their first pc game, just cause its the first time doesn't make it okay to quite frankly put out an unfinished/downright bad product. Not to mention how bad a job they did on the engine itself. Granted thats the CS major part of me talking not the gamer part. Still in this age making an engine that goes in to double speed at 60fps is just poor coding. And I know I can use a 360 controller, but I shouldn't have to use one just to have the game tell me the right button to push.

I love having being a pc gamer and being able to have mods fix it(though I heard GFWL bans you if you get caught modding), but no company should put out a product that HAS to be fixed by the community just to meet the standards that every other game for the past several years(even indie games!) have had.

Gonna stop now before my inner coder gets too far out in rage mode at this game.

This is why I have consoles and a gaming PC. The game is really good, but it is a known shitty port to the PC. The same thing is coming up with Dead Space 3. If I were going to get it (which I'm not...microtransactions in a sp game? dickish PC comments from the dev team leader? pass) I'd get it on a console.

I get what you mean, though, a controller is immensely helpful to playing the game (again, from what I have read, as I have the 360 version).

I have a controller. It's not an Xbox controller though, as I don't need one, I'm happy with my current controller... but it doesn't have a button A, or a button Y! Or whatever else the xbox one has. >:(

This is why I have consoles and a gaming PC. The game is really good, but it is a known shitty port to the PC. The same thing is coming up with Dead Space 3. If I were going to get it (which I'm not...microtransactions in a sp game? dickish PC comments from the dev team leader? pass) I'd get it on a console.

I may do that--the premise looked good, but I was extremely disappointed the execution. I took maybe half an hour to try to get everything right, but ended up just deleting the game when it kept yelling at me to Press A! Press B! Press LB! Press RB!

It's not hard to point the code at the action and not the stupid controller button. I'm not a coder, but it should go something like:

But they went the lazy route, and assumed that 1) console players would never (or are unable to) remap their controls, and 2) PC gamers would never play their game anyways.

That way if you rebind it, the prompt in the game will change as well. This is nothing but lazy coding, and you're a bad developer if you don't KNOW what makes a good PC game. Unless they grew up purposefully avoiding PCs, then they have no business in the gaming market, as that means they couldn't even hire a PC advisor to steer them away from the console port pitfalls.

And nobody better dare tell me to get a controller to enjoy the game. This is the PC gaming forum, and I better be able to do it with my keyboard and mouse (unless it's a flight sim).

I'd love to see a game developer try to put console players and PC gamers in the same universe in something like a shooter... PC gamers would rape all the console gamers until they figured out how to hack a mouse to work with their xbox.--Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

I'd love to see a game developer try to put console players and PC gamers in the same universe in something like a shooter... PC gamers would rape all the console gamers until they figured out how to hack a mouse to work with their xbox.

They have done studies on this, thats exactly what happened. "Pros" at the console/gamers using gamepads games got raped by pc gamers who have never played the game before but know how to play fpses on the pc. Not surprising, look how much more precise you can get with a KB+M. I think thats also one of the reasons ms wont let console and pc gamers play together.

You make a good point, some games are better on a controller(alice madness returns for instance), even back in the 90's when pc was on top some games were better on a controller. IIRC jazz jackrabbit had a controller you could order that supposedly was wonderful, and I enjoyed toy story 2 more on a game pad than KB+M when the game pad worked. Thats one of the strong points of a pc, you are not limited to one input device you can use pretty much anything.

Though I have to say I preferred TW2 on a KB+M over a controller. Granted with all the updates they've had for it its possible they updated the KB+M input since I only played it late last month.

I don't mind a controller at all--what I do mind is being told to use a controller or GTFO.

TW2 is a great example--the combat was intuitive to me with KB+M, but apparently is also blended well with a controller, and went on to be a PC port (not too many of those) a year later for Xbox.--Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

This is why I have consoles and a gaming PC. The game is really good, but it is a known shitty port to the PC. The same thing is coming up with Dead Space 3. If I were going to get it (which I'm not...microtransactions in a sp game? dickish PC comments from the dev team leader? pass) I'd get it on a console.

I may do that--the premise looked good, but I was extremely disappointed the execution. I took maybe half an hour to try to get everything right, but ended up just deleting the game when it kept yelling at me to Press A! Press B! Press LB! Press RB!

It's not hard to point the code at the action and not the stupid controller button. I'm not a coder, but it should go something like:

But they went the lazy route, and assumed that 1) console players would never (or are unable to) remap their controls, and 2) PC gamers would never play their game anyways.

That way if you rebind it, the prompt in the game will change as well. This is nothing but lazy coding, and you're a bad developer if you don't KNOW what makes a good PC game. Unless they grew up purposefully avoiding PCs, then they have no business in the gaming market, as that means they couldn't even hire a PC advisor to steer them away from the console port pitfalls.

And nobody better dare tell me to get a controller to enjoy the game. This is the PC gaming forum, and I better be able to do it with my keyboard and mouse (unless it's a flight sim).

I'd love to see a game developer try to put console players and PC gamers in the same universe in something like a shooter... PC gamers would rape all the console gamers until they figured out how to hack a mouse to work with their xbox.

Well, when you are coding for only consoles, why make it so it checks a keybind when you know it is already going to be exactly one possible keybind?

Also, play it with a controller. :p If it is more comfortable to play with a controller and you have one, why not use it? Just because you can force the square peg through the round hole, you would get more enjoyment if you just put it in the square hole. ;)

The original game, Demon's Souls, is a PS3 exclusive, so the one input is probably hard-coded into the game. From Software never expected to have the game blow up as much as it did when they originally wrote the game. They probably figured it would always be a PS3 exclusive.

Be that as it may, it doesn't excuse a lazy port. They could have changed that its not that hard to do. Its not hard to change a line of text from push the x button to push the space bar.

Agreed, if they were that uncomfortable with it, they should have farmed out the programming to a more PC-comfortable team. It's too bad though because it's a fun game in it's own way.--Support Bacteria -- It's the Only Culture Some People Have

Was the port bad, yeah, absolutely, but there are a few things that you can do to fix it up. I've done this and have played MANY hours in this game. It's actually very addicting and, while frustrating, a VERY deep game for a console. I really enjoy it.

1) The first thing you have to do is get the dsfix for this. This unlocks the resolutions for the game.

2) Playing this with K+M is a waste of time. Don't bother. You need a gamepad or a true xb360 controller. I don't have one, I use a POS Saitek Rumble Force, but the need to get it to work with the game introduced me to a kickass xb360 emulator called x360ce.

It takes some tweaking to get it right, but basically, you fire it up, make sure all your settings are good, all buttons work, etc. and then exit out. You'll have some files in the directory that you placed the emulator in. Take all of the files, including the .exe, and place it into the /bin directory of the game you want to play (where the game .exe is located) and drop all of them in there. When the game starts, it will hook and load the emulator on its own. This is true for ANY game, which makes it so kick ass, and once you've created those files and got them the way you want them, you don't ever have to restart the app itself, just grab the files and drop them in and you're ready to go. You'll know its working as you'll hear it 'ding' at game launch. Pretty cool.

Was the port shitty, yup and should have been able to handle all of this, but with a little elbow grease, I find the game to be extremely fun and challenging. The core game itself is awesome. Don't regret buying it in the slightest. If anyone needs help getting it going, PM me and I'll be glad to help.--I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.- Edward Everett Hale